Sorcerer Taylor
by Prince Pondincherry
Summary: Alternate power story. As the uncreative name suggests, this is the story of Taylor with Sorcerer spells from D&D 3.5, with the twist that I selected them randomly so Taylor would have to munchkin with just what she gets.
1. First Level

I had been released from the hospital Dad had taken me to as soon as he got home four days after the locker incident. After that, I had another week of counseling and psychologist appointments before I had to return to that wretched school. But the horror of it was tempered by the fact that I am undeniably a cape! I hadn't been able to test my powers too much at the hospital for fear of being caught, but a covert use of Touch of Fatigue hadn't seemed to do anything to the nurse I tried it on. Then again, nurses were probably used to keeping their exhaustion from showing. On the other hand, Mending had been able to repair my hospital gown after I had ripped it, and I was looking forward to testing how much exactly I could fix. Each ability required hand motions and words that had suddenly entered my head in the locker, but I was able to whisper them and still get away with it.

I was able to test my abilities much better once I got out of the hospital. My repertoire of, well, there wasn't really anything better to call them than "spells", included Ghost Sound, which could make as much noise as several people. Oddly enough, I could tell it was fake sometimes, but not all of the time. As far as I could tell, it lasted for 25 feet and could be moved around. Next on my mental list was something called Disrupt Undead, which I guessed would only be useful if I encountered a cape who could produce zombies or something. Mending could fix one object up to 1 lb. in weight (yes, I weighed it. Yes, I am a geek.) I could completely repair wood or ceramic, but only one break in metal would be fixed.

Ghost Sound, Touch of Fatigue, and Mending seemed to belong to one group of spells, and I could use spells from that group as many times as I wanted. Mount and Magic Missile were in the other group, members of which I could only use 3 times daily. Magic Missile blasted magical energy 110 feet (I had to sneak off to the ship graveyard to test one day, under the guise of going for a run.) I never missed something as long as it was visible to me, but I never did any damage to any objects I hit. I had been able to kill a rat, though, so I guessed it was only useful against living creatures. Trying it against larger and larger animals had led me to conclude it was somewhat weak, since I couldn't even kill a stray cat in one hit when I tried. (A fact which I was glad about, actually. I hadn't wanted to kill it.)

Mount summoned a small horse or a pony out of nothingness for me to ride, a fact which totally astounded me, as did its disappearance after 2 hours. I couldn't really practice riding in the city, but I was able to convince my dad to take me into the country and learn to ride horses whenever they got the chance. I felt guilty, since we didn't really have the money for it, but my dad was happy to oblige, seeing it as the first positive hobby I'd had in a long time. Riding a horse was an oddly freeing experience, and I had to admit that it did help my cope with my awful school life.

I also had two other abilities that felt subtly different than spells called Rime Spell and Point Blank Shot. Despite the name, Rime Spell wasn't actually a spell. I thought it might be a modifier for an existing spell-maybe it could make a frosty horse or something?-but it didn't do anything when I tried saying "Rime Mount" and "Rime Magic Missile." Point Blank Shot seemed similarly useless. It sounded like it would be useful for aiming at things nearby, but Magic Missile always hit the target anyway. Maybe it would improve my accuracy with a gun? Maybe these two abilities would eventually be useful, but for now I just had the spells. They added up to a really weak cape, but a cape nonetheless. I estimated I would be ranked a Blaster 1 (for the Magic Missile), Stranger 1 (for the Ghost Sound), and Shaker 1 (for the Mount and Mending), with an effective Mover 0 for being able to summon a horse. All in all, not too great, but I was determined to become a hero anyway.

One thing that took a while for me to get the chance to do was use the Summon Familiar ritual I had the knowledge of, somehow. Research in the library told me what familiars were in the stories of witches, so I had some idea what to expect. The biggest problem I had was that I needed 24 hours to myself. Eventually, I decided to deal with lying and told my dad that I was going to sleep over at Emma's. Leaving early in the morning one day, I snuck into a secluded space in one of the old wrecks in the ship graveyard to perform the ritual.

After 24 hours, some arcane ritualistic stuff that I was still rather surprised that I knew, and the offering up of some money to a fire, a raven flew into the ship. Out of all of the animals that had felt like they would be right for familiars, a raven would seem one of the most natural to be hanging out near me, and I figured it was less likely to spook the horses. "Hi there. I guess you're my familiar now," I said as the raven flew up to me. I extended my arm, and it landed.

"Hello."

I shrieked. "You can talk!"

"Well apparently," the bird said.

"But that doesn't make any sense! You don't even have lips!"

"Didn't you just spend a day summoning me with magic, and you're complaining that I can talk?"

"Well, good point, I guess. By the way, I'm Taylor Hebert."

"Nice to meet you. I'm…well, I guess you're going to have to name me."

"Are you a boy or a girl?"

"Girl."

"Hmm…I think I'll call you Annie, after my mother, Annette."

"Annie. I like it." And indeed, I could feel the raven's satisfaction.

"Huh, that's pretty neat. I can tell you like it." We spent about an hour becoming more acquainted before we walked back to my house, Annie flying nearby so as not to be suspicious.

.

Unfortunately, school that Monday was the same old mess of bullying. I found myself sorely tempted to use my three Magic Missiles against my three bullies, but I knew it would only make them angry, and more to the point, it would out me as a cape. Still, I decided to try something. After Sophia tripped me at recess, I grabbed her ankle and whispered "Touch of Fatigue." As usual, nothing seemed to happen. Sophia kicked me in the head, and I saw stars. I managed to drag myself to my feet and run away.

"Hebert!" Sophia thundered. "You should know by now, you can't outrun me!" But as she tried to run after me, she looked like she was too exhausted to run. "What the hell? When did I get so out of shape?" Sophia muttered. I looked back in amazement, but six seconds later, Sophia suddenly got a new burst of speed and ran after me again. I turned and ran outside onto the playground. Sophia had almost caught me when Annie flew by and crapped in her face. "Gah! Stupid bird!" I snuck off while Sophia was cleaning her face.

During lunch, I retreated to the bathroom as I always did to eat lunch in peace when I felt frustration over my bond with Annie and heard tapping on the window. I quietly got up and let her in, bringing her back to the stall with me. "Thanks for earlier," I said.

"Of course. I could feel you were in trouble, so I had to help out."

"Still, you can't do it again for a while. I don't want the others getting suspicious."

"Okay. Are you sure you can't use any spells against them?"

"Well, Touch of Fatigue might work. It kept Sophia from running for six seconds after I used it, so it should be able to give me a head start. I'm not sure what else I could use without giving myself away."

"What about Ghost Sound? What if they heard teachers talking about busting them?"

"That just might work."

.

The next day in Mr. Gladly's class, Emma, Madison, and Sophia started throwing their usual taunts at me. "Damn. They'd never believe Mr. Gladly would suddenly care now. He's obviously been turning a blind eye to the bullying," I thought. But after thinking a bit, I had a different idea.

"Can you believe they're always tormenting that poor girl? That's so lame," one voice said.

"You'd think they have something to prove," another voice said.

"Hey, you! Leave her alone," a third voice demanded. Sophia whirled around.

"Who said that?" The girls nearby cringed back, frightened. I felt a little pity, but not much; these girls would harass me as soon as the main three were done.

"I swear, I didn't say anything," the girl said.

"Yes, you did!" said another voice.

"Okay, cut this out!" Emma said, raising her voice a little. The volume of people and illusionary voices talking had finally grown enough that Mr. Gladly had to step in.

"Girls, quiet down and return to your seats!" he demanded. The three bullies grudgingly sat down. Sophia gave me a wary glance.

"Uh, oh. Does she suspect?" I wondered. But my worrying was cut off by a wonderful feeling of victory. I basked in it for five minutes before realizing it came with new knowledge. I knew another spell!

**Author's Notes:**

**I fully expect this to be one of my worst stories, since I'm writing it entirely while procrastinating and thus can't be bothered to try very hard. I spent a while describing all the spells, and I'm sorry if that isn't your cup of tea. On the mechanics of Taylor's power: I don't know enough to bother with a lot of character creation stuff, and I'm still debating whether to include metamagic. If this bothers you, just say that since Taylor's power didn't come with a D&amp;D guidebook, she just doesn't realize what options she has. Also, I'm not calculating experience or rolling any dice, and nobody has a set hit point total. That said, I'm trying to make it slightly reasonable, for instance more important enemies will be harder to take out than random street thugs and will be required to level up at higher levels. If anyone actually cares enough to correct something, comment and it's possible I'll eventually get around to fixing it.**

**Taylor is a Pathfinder sorcerer with the Arcane Bloodline, mostly because it makes her a much more viable cape than just a bog-standard 3.5e sorcerer. Infinite cantrips will help, as will the guaranteed bonus spells, which mean that despite my random spell selection for her, she'll still get at least a few good ones. I'm keeping the number of spells per day from non-Pathfinder, though, since it's more spells and will give her a better chance. (And I have no plans of actually going to an endgame scenario, but if I did, Wish would be extremely important for letting Taylor have a fighting chance.)**


	2. Second Level

When I got home, I retreated to my room and let Annie in the window so I could try out my new spell, Resistance. It didn't work on any of the inanimate objects. "Try it on me," Annie suggested.

"What?"

"Well, 'Resistance' sounds like a good thing, so you can try it on me, and then I'll fly into the wall and see if it hurts less or something."

"Alright, I guess we can try it." Unfortunately, it did nothing of the sort. I also tracked down another rat, cast Resistance on it, and cast a Magic Missile at it, and it still killed the rat. "I sort of get the feeling it's meant to resist stranger things, like maybe it would help me realize the Ghost Sound is an illusion," I thought. After a lot of tests over the next week or so, I discovered two facts; one, I was right; it very slightly improved my chance to disbelieve an illusion (and improved Sophia's chance to not be affected by Touch of Fatigue). Two, it belonged to the group of spells that I could cast as many as I wanted of per day. I decided to call this group "0th level" because they were kind of lame, and the other group "1st level".

I also discovered a couple of exciting new things. Touch of Fatigue lasted 12 seconds instead of six, now. Ghost Sound now worked for 30 feet, Magic Missile had a range of 120 feet instead of 110, and Mount summoned a horse for 4 hours instead of 2. Even more exciting, I could now cast 6 0th level spells per day and 4 1st level spells.

I was returning from testing one day at the Boat Graveyard, my store of spells exhausted, when Annie flew down from where I had been circling overhead and landed on my shoulder. "Two thuggish-looking people with ABB colors are about to come around the corner," she whispered in my ear. I quickly turned down an alley and whispered back, "watch them, and come tell me if I need to turn again." Luckily, the two thugs, members of the all-Asian gang the Asian Bad Boyz, hadn't noticed me, and I was able to get home safely.

..

The next Saturday, me and Annie went shopping. Yes, I brought my pet raven with me on a shopping trip, hidden inside a purse. I had tried to protest that it was a crazy idea, but Annie was insistent. Strangely enough, I was able to tell how much the clothes and masks were really worth much better with Annie along. Clothes and masks because I was finally putting together my cape costume. There wasn't too much I could do with my abilities, but I could probably do a little, and that was all that mattered. Even if I wouldn't be the classiest cape ever with a store-bought costume.

As I bought a domino mask and quickly shoved it in a bag, I suddenly heard a suspicious sound and looked over to the side of the store, where I saw someone who looked down quickly. "Was she watching me?" I wondered. "And how did I notice? Maybe having Annie with me helps me notice people spying on me, and helps me shop better? What a weird power!" When I walked outside, I quickly walked to the side and found a position where I could look at the door, somewhat covertly. "Annie, go watch the other entrance." And I gave my familiar as good a description of my potential stalker as I could.

Half an hour later, Annie flew back, landed on my shoulder, and whispered in my ear. "It was Sophia." I froze in fright, and Annie flew to a tree nearby to look less suspicious.

"No more spells in school," I muttered, just loud enough that Annie could hear. She cawed in agreement.

..

That night, I was walking down to the Boat Graveyard wearing most of my costume, which looked a lot like normal teenager clothes, when Annie flew to my shoulder to warn me of three incoming ABB members. "I'm not going to hide this time. I can still cast all my spells for the day. Stay with me, I want to see if I notice them better." Sure enough, I spotted the three thugs rounding a corner before they saw me, and well before I normally would have seen them in the darkness. I pulled on my mask, and Annie took to the air. I also cast Resistance on myself and Annie, figuring that I had enough level 0 spells to spend one trying to figure out if Resistance was any good in a fight. One of the thugs saw me and swaggered closer.

"Who do you think you are? Some cape, wearing a mask? You don't look like any cape I've ever heard of!" one demanded.

"Do I have to be a cape to want people not to know who I am?" I asked as I kept walking. The two other thugs blocked my progress, however.

"You know what I think?" one of them asked rhetorically. "I think you are just a helpless little girl who wants us to think you are a cape so we'll be too scared to steal your lunch money. Hand it over, little girl."

"Alright, you asked for it," I said. "_Magic Missile_," I cast at the nearest thug. He was close enough that he could easily have disrupted my hand motions, but he was more curious than worried. A blast of energy smacked him in the face, giving him a black eye. "Oh, you are a cape, and a lame one at that," the thug behind me snickered. The one in front of me punched me in the gut, making me fall backwards. I felt like I should have thrown up, but the magic had fortified my constitution enough that I kept it in.

"Some spell," I thought, although it was undeniably helpful in this instance. I reached for the thug who had been behind me before I fell and cast "_Touch of Fatigue_" before pulling myself to my feet and starting to run. I had to remind myself I wasn't actually retreating, just trying to get some space. The uninjured thug tried to follow me, but Annie swooped down and clawed at him. The one I had hit in the face paused, dazed, before running after me, but Annie's distraction had given me enough time to cast "_Mount_", summoning a horse. Instead of mounting it, I slapped it on the butt and sent it careening towards the thugs. Two jumped out of the way in time, but it stepped on one's foot, crushing it. Hmm, that had actually been more useful than Magic Missile, at least under those specific circumstances. I sent another Magic Missile into the thug with the black eye, keeping him on the ground where he had fallen after jumping out of the way of the horse. The other one pulled himself to his feet and swung his arm at Annie, knocking her to the ground. I felt my familiar's pain, but I could see her pulling herself upright, so I worried about my own predicament. "_Mount_," I cast again, and this time I pulled myself onto the horse, but before I could start riding away, one of the thugs drew a pistol and shot the horse, making it fall over and throw me off. Now that I was out of combat magic, I used my backup plan and cast, "_Ghost Sound_." Police sirens as loud as seven people combined filled the air, while a voice called out "This is the police. Drop your weapons." The two thugs who were still standing ran away, and I did as well. I slowed to a walk when I got a block away, and Annie landed on my shoulder.

"All clear. They don't suspect it's a trick."

"Awesome!" I replied. "And I just learned a new spell!"


	3. Third Level

It turned out that I had gotten two new spells. One of the new spells was Unseen Servant, which let me create a useful, invisible force that could move around and perform simple tasks within 30 feet of me. Not exactly the best for combat, but I was sure I could find a use for it. My first thought was to have it carry some metal from the Ship Graveyard to use as a shield, but it could only carry 20 lbs or drag 100, so that wasn't a great plan. Still, it was far from useless. Unfortunately, it drew from my more limited pool of 1st level spells, of which I now had 5. It seemed like I "leveled up," or whatever this was, after victories, which meant I'd probably never become a powerful cape until I went out and stopped some crime. I hoped I'd eventually learn some powerful spells, since my Magic Missile spell only seemed a little bit better than the can of pepper spray I carried with me in case my powers failed me.

The other new spell was unfortunately not an exception to the "no powerful spells" rule. It was called Identify, but I wasn't able to figure out what it was supposed to be identifying. I tried casting it in a couple places, but nothing happened.

In addition to new spells, I had apparently gotten another of the weird non-spell abilities, although hopefully this one wouldn't be as useless as the other two abilities or Identify. I now had the knowledge of how to combine certain ingredients and mix them together in a certain way to make what seemed to be potions. I guess that made me a Tinker too? Some of the ingredients were things I could find in the house, but others I'd have to go shopping for, so I decided to put it off for now.

Annie also reported that she felt a little different after I had leveled up. It took a little bit of testing, but we eventually figured out why: Annie could count as an extension of my body when I was casting spells that required touch. If I cast Touch of Fatigue while touching Annie, she could fly and touch someone else, and they would be unable to run. This was neat, but not extremely exciting. It was nice that I wouldn't have to put myself in danger to cast spells that required touch, but I didn't want Annie to get hurt either, so it wasn't that big of an improvement.

That Monday, I was prepared for school to really suck, since I had resolved not to use any spells to get away from my tormentors, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Emma and Madison were as awful as always, but Sophia hung back a little, which only put me on guard after Saturday. After school, I found out that she was up to something. As I walked home, Annie circling overhead to look for danger, I felt a spike of worry across our link. A second later, Annie swooped across my path, saying, "Sophia" before swooping back up into the air. Trying to make it look like I was just jogging casually, I started to run away, but Sophia was on the track team, so she was fitter than me despite my attempts to get in shape. Eventually, she caught up to me and grabbed my shoulder.

"Hebert, wait!"

"Isn't it enough for you to bug me during school? Do you have to come after me afterwards too?" Normally I wouldn't be as forward with one of my bullies, but being a cape and being unable to use my powers made me bold in my frustration.

Sophia leaned in closer to me and whispered, "I know you're a cape. I saw you take out those thugs yesterday." I stepped away, shocked. What to do? I could beg her not to tell anyone, but knowing Sophia, that would just make it more likely. Then it got worse. Sophia continued,

"I'm pretty sure it's illegal to use parahuman abilities against classmates." I gulped. "But don't worry. I won't tell anyone. Why would I? You've got to be the lamest cape I've ever heard of. I bet you can't even take me in a fight."

Looking at the wiry, athletic girl in front of me, I thought, "Probably not," but I stayed silent.

Sophia continued. "I'll tell you what, Hebert. Meet me at the Boat Graveyard tonight at 9, and we'll have a little brawl. No witnesses, and no permanent injuries. And you only get to use your powers; no other weapons. I'll be unarmed. If you beat me, I'll cut back on messing with you in school. I can respect actual strength. But there's no way you'll beat me. When I win, you agree not to go out and try to be a hero again. You're just going to get yourself killed like an idiot." If it was anyone other than a member of the Terrible Trio telling me this, I would have thought she cared, but as it was, I was pretty sure Sophia was just jealous that I had powers and she didn't. But she did have a point.

"And what if I decline?" I asked.

"Then I will tell everybody you've been using your powers to mess with us. And who would believe your side of the story? They never have before." A sour taste filled my mouth.

"Fine," I spat out. "I'll be there."

…

When I got home, I went to my room, shut the door, opened the window, and collapsed on the bed. "I am so dead!" There was no way I could beat Sophia in a fight, not when she was prepared for me to use my powers, not after I had done so poorly against the gang members the night before. And my one friend in the world had abandoned me. Annie usually flew in the window to talk so I could decompress about my day—it was one of the only things keeping me sane—but this time she was nowhere to be seen.

I sat and moped for another five minutes before I started to wonder, and worry a little. Where was Annie? Had Sophia done something to her? I tried to convey my curiosity and a little bit of my worry across the bond, and I received a reassuring calm back, and even a little excitement and satisfaction. This was just great. Here I was wallowing in my misery, and my one friend in the world was off having a marvelous time. I was banging my head on my pillow in frustration when I heard the rustling of feathers and felt a thump on my back. "Ow. Now you're beating me up too, you traitorous bird," I cried in indignation that was only partially faked. Then I rolled over and saw what had hit me: a bar of chocolate. Annie hopped next to where it lay on the bed and nudged it towards me. "Thank you," I said quietly, touched. I unwrapped the chocolate bar and started munching on it. "This is really good, thank you," I said, my mouth full of chocolate. Then I thought of something. "You didn't steal it, did you?"

"Nope. I've got a store of cash I've found lost around the city. I bought it," Annie said, a note of pride in her voice.

I almost choked on my chocolate, laughing. "That must have looked so silly! A raven dropping off some cash at the counter and flying away with a chocolate bar!"

Annie laughed as well, and I took a moment to once again marvel at the magic that let her speak. How in the world could she laugh? I had no clue, but at the moment, I was just happy she could. "You know, you have successfully cheered me up," I said, but my mood darkened a little. "But that's not going to help tonight."

"Weren't you just saying you needed to get in more fights to learn more spells? Well, now's your chance," Annie pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess." But I was hesitant.

"Look, you're just freaked out because of who you're fighting, and that's understandable. But you have to remember, you're a badass cape now, and she's just some random girl. Just keep your chin up and you'll be fine."

I hesitantly smiled. "Of course you're right. When did a raven become smarter than me?"

"Not smarter, just, well, two heads are better than one, right? Even if one of the heads is a bird brain." And she tilted her head and looked at me in what passed for a smirk with her.

"You're not talking about yourself, are you?" Annie just flew away before I could swat at her.

…

I stood warily outside the Boat Graveyard, waiting for Annie to return from her scouting trip. "All clear," she said as she alighted on my shoulder. "It looked like it was just Sophia there, although I didn't have time to check inside all the boats. And I didn't see any cameras or microphones either. Your secret should be safe."

"Well. I guess it's time to go in, then. Remember, don't talk; I don't think she knows you can." I slowly walked in, Annie directing me until we encountered Sophia.

"Hebert. I was starting to think you weren't coming." Sophia smiled wickedly. "What's with the bird? I said this was between me and you."

"We're a package deal. Annie's only here because of my powers. She stays," I said.

I could have sworn Sophia looked a little impressed for a second before her normal disdainful look reappeared on her face. "Alright, the little birdy stays. Won't matter anyway, you're still going to lose."

"So, what are the rules?" I asked.

"No weapons. I fight totally unarmed, you get to use only powers and your bird. And we don't permanently injure each other: no broken bones, and absolutely no killing."

It was too bad I couldn't use weapons. Unseen Servant was going to be useless, then. Why couldn't I have gotten a more combat-useful spell? "The same goes for Annie. No broken wings or anything."

"Okay, fine. The bird too. You ready?"

"Wait! Shouldn't we start at 20 paces or something? It's traditional."

"Why? We don't have any weapons, why shouldn't we start in striking distance?"

"I have ranged abilities. You said you didn't think you could beat me and my abilities. You have to give me space to use them or it doesn't count."

"Okay, fine." We walked next to each other, and each took 20 steps away from each other. I think that's what they mean by 20 paces, anyway. "Ready to lose, Hebert?"

"Oh, one more thing. Can I cast any of my spells before we start?" I asked, thinking of Resistance.

Sophia sneered. "You call your powers spells?"

What? It fit. "Just answer the question."

"No. That wouldn't be fair. You don't get to start until I do."

"Ok. I'm ready then."

Sophia started counting. "Three. Two. One. Fight!" She immediately sprinted at me.

"_Magic Missile_," I cast. I was momentarily surprised to see two balls of energy blasting from my hand instead of one. I guess something good had come out of the last level-up, as long as that meant I could shoot 10 missiles now instead of just five, and more quickly than before. Sophia tried to jump out of the way with an impressive dodge, but Magic Missile doesn't miss. Unfortunately, the missiles seemed to do less damage to her than they had to the gangster, so she was able to push through the injury and pain and keep running at me.

"_Touch of Fatigue_," I cast, then shouted, "Annie!" Realizing what I wanted her to do, Annie took off from my shoulder. She flew at Sophia, dodging when she swatted a hand at her, and cuffed her on the head with a wing to deliver the spell before flying back to my shoulder. I used the opportunity to run away. This time I was able to run for 18 seconds while Sophia could do nothing more than walk. Oh, and shout angrily, of course.

"Get back here, you coward! I'm not done with you!"

"Neither am I! _Mount_." A small horse appeared, and I mounted it.

"No fair!"

"You said I could use my powers." The Touch of Fatigue wore off, and Sophia started charging at me. I cast, "_Magic Missile_." Annoyingly, Sophia stumbled a bit, but somehow still didn't go down as two more Magic Missiles hit her. Well, sending my horse at the gangsters had worked pretty well; maybe trying to run Sophia over would work. I spurred my horse forward with my heels, sure that even Sophia would be cowed by someone charging her on horseback. As I got closer, though, I only saw rage in her eyes. She dodged to the side just before she would have been trampled, grabbed the horse by the neck, and swung herself up, using the horse's momentum to kick me off its back. Annie took flight and I fell to the ground roughly. As the horse galloped away, Sophia managed to get control of it. "_Dismiss Mount_," I cast, using a nifty trick I had learned a couple weeks back. Sophia tumbled to the ground. As she stood up, I cast my last 1st level spell and prayed that it would work. "_Magic Missile_." Two blasts of energy shot out and smashed into her. She let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground.

I approached cautiously, wary of a trick. Sophia groaned and slowly tried to pull herself up, so I stepped on her shoulder, pushing her back to the ground, and demanded, "Give up." She stared at me defiantly. "Give up, I won!" I repeated, louder this time. Sophia coughed on a little bit of blood that had rolled down her throat from a split lip.

"You win, damnit! Now get off me!" I backed off warily, not expected Sophia to be above attacking someone after giving up, but she seemed able to admit when she had lost. With that, I advanced another level.


	4. Fourth Level

The fight over, I had a chance to look over Sophia's injuries, and **holy shit** did my Magic Missiles do more damage than I had been expecting. Sophia's clothes had holes in them where the Missiles had hit, and the edges of the holes looked singed and melted. Sophia's skin underneath looked burnt, and she was bleeding a scary amount in some places. What sort of pain tolerance did she have? I knew she was determined to win, but _damn_. I'm ashamed to admit I panicked a little: I hadn't really wanted to hurt Sophia _quite_ this much, and for a ridiculous moment I was scared she was going to die. Then Sophia interrupted my hysterical ramblings by pulling herself to her feet and telling me, "Fuck off, I can lick my own wounds without your ridiculous fussing. Wuss." So I cast Mending a few times, fixing Sophia's clothes, and then left. None of my magic was any good for healing, anyway.

I could barely sleep that night. I spent a while tossing and turning in my bed, imagining dire scenarios where Sophia blamed me for her injuries. I didn't think Sophia was the kind of person who would rat me out like that, but maybe she would talk to the teachers—or the cops—now that she was the one who was hurt. Annie tried to calm me down so I could sleep, but all she could offer was empty assurances, so it didn't help. In the end I just gave up and tried to figure out what my new spells were.

After my third level-up, I now had two new spells: Summon Monster II and Ray of Frost. Summoning a monster sounded really dangerous, so I put it off until later, but I tried Ray of Frost, which turned out to shoot a ray of freezing air and ice. I also realized with some excitement that it never ran out: I now had a 0th level damaging spell, which would be pretty useful.

That tested as much as I could at the moment, I once again tried to fall asleep, but I was still too worried. I even tried casting Touch of Fatigue on myself in case it had the hidden ability to make me sleepy, but I had no such luck. I ended up lying in bed, staring at the ceiling until an absurd hour of the night, when I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I did **not** feel well-rested. I was barely able to drag myself out of bed and get ready for the day, and I **really** didn't want to go to school and face whatever Sophia would have planned for me in retaliation for her loss. But eventually I convinced myself to go. _I __**won**__ that fight. I can't let Sophia get to me._ And she _had_ said she'd lay off the bullying if I won our fight. Still, I definitely didn't trust her enough to get my hopes up.

….

To my utter surprise, Sophia was true to her word. She didn't retaliate in any way, and even seemed to be wearing more concealing clothes than usual to hide her injuries. I was wary at first, but in the long term, not only did Sophia stop bullying me, but she put an end to Emma and Madison's bullying as well. Instead, they seemed resolute to completely ignore my existence, but it was such a huge improvement that I didn't care. Without the ringleaders, the rest of the students who had been bullying me backed off as well.

I went back to the Boat Graveyard that first night to test my new abilities, and I got a good surprise and a bad surprise. My third level-up was a much more dramatic improvement than the second had been. First, I had the new 0th level spell Ray of Frost, which shot a ray of freezing air and ice 45 feet. I now finally had a use for Rime Spell. Since Ray of Frost was also ice-themed, I decided to try casting Rimed Ray of Frost, and it worked—when the spell hit a rat, it was covered with a thin layer of frost that impaired its movement for 3 seconds. So Rime Spell still wasn't very useful. Even worse, using Rime Spell on the Ray of Frost made it act as a 1st level spell, so I decided it wasn't worth it. Oh well.

My testing on wild animals revealed that Ray of Frost did less damage and was less accurate than Magic Missile, but that was more than made up for by the infinite uses I seemed to have, especially after the other thing I learned. To my surprise, when I tried to test how many 1st level spells I now had per day, I could only cast two spells. I panicked a little at my powers malfunctioning, of course. After some brainstorming, Annie and I guessed that it might have to do with how little I had slept the night before, and sure enough, when I made sure to get enough sleep that night, I was able to cast 6 1st level spells the next day.

The Ray of Frost wasn't the only good thing I got out of the new level. It turned out that Summon Monster II (I wondered whether there was a Summon Monster I that I just hadn't heard of, or whether the mysterious being granting me my powers just had a sense of humor) belonged to a new category, which I named 2nd level spells. It let me summon an unnatural, angelic-looking eagle or 1-3 angelic badgers or monkeys (the number was random). These animals weren't intelligent like Annie, but if I summoned them while I had an "enemy" in mind, such as a pigeon, they would immediately attack it, making them a bit more useful for fighting than the ponies I had been using.

When I got the chance, I went out and bought the ingredients to make one potion. Examining the ideas in my head carefully, I realized that the potions were supposed to be drinkable spells. Brewing a potion would take a full day, so it took a while before Dad was away from home long enough for me to do it without him noticing. While I was mixing the components in an old pot, I had to pick which spell it would be out of the spells I could cast that targeted a person. Since I didn't want to make a potion of Fatigue or of Disrupting Undead, I made a potion of Resistance. From what I could tell when I took the potion, it seemed to work exactly the same as when I cast the spell Resistance on myself. In the end, I decided this was neat, but nowhere near useful enough to be worth spending the time, effort, and money making.

….

I spent a while practicing and testing my spells and putting together a workable costume. Eventually, I decided to actively go out heroing and search for trouble to stop. The first three nights, I saw a bunch of shady-looking people, but no overtly criminal activity except a few guys buying smoking pot in an alley. And honestly, my Magic Missiles or Summoned Monsters would be extreme overkill for that, so I just let them be.

The fourth time I walked into the Docks in costume with Annie on my shoulder, I found a group of ABB with Lung, of all people! This was not who I had wanted to fight on my first day looking for trouble! There was no way I could beat him! I climbed a fire escape to the roof of a nearby building to get a better vantage point and heard Lung say they were going to kill children!

(Note: See Wildbow's excellent exposition in Gestation 1.3 and 1.4. I see no reason to try to repeat it. This is a fanfiction, after all.)

I wished I had a cell phone so I could call the actual heroes to tell them that Lung was planning to attack children! But I did have the next best thing; a talking bird. I held out my hand for Annie to hop on and pulled her ear closer to my mouth. I whispered, "Call the PRT," and extended my arm, and Annie took off. The PRT, the Parahuman Response Team, would be able to handle the situation, I was sure of it. If they didn't think they could handle Lung, they could at least call the Protectorate, the local hero group, to take care of it.

Now what should I do? There was no way I was going to step in and fight if I didn't absolutely have to, but I didn't want to leave the children helpless if the PRT didn't show up in time, so I climbed back down the fire escape and trailed the group of 25 or so gang members as they walked down the street. "_Unseen Servant_," I cast quietly, and I willed my servant to exist 35 feet away from me, at the end of its range. If it came to a fight, I was hoping it could disarm some of my opponents before they went for their guns. I cast Resistance on myself as a precautionary measure, although I hoped I wouldn't get in a fight at all, let alone in the next minute before the Resistance would expire and I'd have to cast it again. I thought of casting Identify to see if maybe it would tell me something about enemies, but then I decided that this was far too dangerous to use a spell slot on a test.

Trailing after a large group of people is actually incredibly nerve-wracking. I think the only reason I wasn't discovered was their supreme confidence. And of course they were confident! There were a ton of them with guns, and they had Lung! We walked down several blocks, me stopping to recast Resistance every minute, before they met up with another group of ABB, including Oni Lee. I only hoped the Protectorate got here soon, because boy, was I in over my head now! With both a pyrokinetic brute who got stronger over time and a teleporter who left behind clones, there was no way I could fight them off. Luckily, I hadn't yet seen the children they were going after, so there was still time.

I heard some murmuring among the gang members as a bunch of them pointed towards one street. Lung turned to look. "They're here," he grunted. I peered down the street and saw complete and utter darkness. That's not a metaphor; I could see literally nothing but blackness. It had to be a parahuman ability. Out of the darkness came a deep, rumbling growl that definitely came from something monstrous.

"The big bad Lung, too chicken to fight us without an army! Are you afraid?" a girlish voice sounded out.

"Shoot her!" Lung called. The thugs didn't do much, probably because they couldn't see anything to shoot. Then a giant monster fell from the sky. I kid you not…well actually, it probably jumped off one of the roofs nearby, but still. It looked like a cross between a leopard and a lizard, but was as big as a car. Darn, why did I get stuck with lame badgers when other capes got powerful monsters like that _thing_!? It landed on top of a large cluster of gang members with Lung in the middle, and I heard cries of pain as bones broke. Lung took the brunt of the blow, and if he had been a normal human, he would have been killed, but I could see him regenerating the massive gouges the monster's claws had made in his chest. The monster rampaged through the gang members. After I got over my shock a little, I noticed there was a figure riding on the monster's back, dressing in what looked like a Renaissance Fair costume and waving about a scepter. Obviously another cape, but not a hero as far as I had heard. A few of the thugs tried to shoot at him. I was too confused by what was going on to even consider disarming them with my Unseen Servant, but they missed him or hit the monster anyway, and the monster seemed totally unaffected.

I turned my focus to another section of what used to be a gathering of ABB members. Another monster, this one with a girl in jeans, a t-shirt, and a dollar-store Rottweiler mask riding it, had jumped straight for Oni Lee, who was mauled by the beast, but exploded into white dust after a few seconds. Apparently, the rider realized it was fruitless and went after the other gang members.

The darkness, which had been self-contained until this point, spread out to blind all of the gang members who had yet to be taken care of, while a bunch of it pooled in an area with no gang members. Maybe it was to block Oni Lee's line of sight? I hadn't seen where he had teleported to earlier. I figured I was probably right, as the darkness spread to cover everywhere I could see. I wondered whether the fighting capes could see at all.

Now that I had a moment to think, I very nearly freaked out. What the hell! Were these also new heroes like me who had heard Lung's plan to kill kids? Or was something else going on? At any rate, I was outclassed, so I stayed out of the way and tried to make sense of the jumbled noises I could hear. The fight was surprisingly quiet; maybe the darkness did something to sound as well as light.

After several minutes where I strained to pick out any sounds of what was going on, the darkness cleared up a little. I could pick out three mounted figures on top of the monsters. One girl looked badly burned and another was bleeding heavily. I also saw Lung, who no longer looked human. His head had narrowed into a snout, his neck had lengthened, armor plates had covered his back, and he had grown an armored tail. Well crap, he was almost a dragon, and there was still no sign of the Protectorate. The only uninjured mounted figure, a burly man in biker gear and a motorcycle helmet with a skull painted on it, spoke loudly enough for me to hear him clearly, without quite shouting. "Ok, you win, Lung. We'll stay out of your territory from now on, as long as you leave us alone." Lung merely snarled in response. From his hands, he sent a tongue of flame to singe the beast biker man was sitting on. The man got his monster moving, turned, and rode out, the rest of his team following after. The darkness dissipated as he left, and I could see the carnage that had been wrought. The storefronts lining the street had been trashed, and flames were still burning the flammable material in the area. There was a costumed figure lying crushed on the ground. Lung had killed one of the capes! Most of the ABB goons were moaning on the ground; the rest had crawled into stores and out of the way. Lung was the only one still standing. Wait…Oni Lee appeared next to him suddenly. Then Lung looked right at me. "Oouuo ooonnaaa iiit eee oouuu" he bellowed, the transformation hard on his pronunciation. Crap. Putting aside the question of how he had found me, what did he want with me? I definitely couldn't fight him! Giving up the attempt to speak, he roared. I jumped with fright and stepped forward into the light, my empty hands raised.

"I'm not here to fight. I just wanted to watch you kick some ass." From what research I had done on Lung, and from the fact that he had let those other capes go when they conceded the fight, I figured he enjoyed fear and respect, so I decided to give him some. "I couldn't see much with that darkness, but I knew you'd win, so I was totally expecting it when they gave up and ran away." I was proud of myself; somehow, my voice didn't shake. Then Lung stomped up to me. I was tall for my age, but he was **way** taller after his transformation. I gulped as he stared down at me and quietly cast Resistance on myself. Maybe it would keep me from puking in fear, at least. Then he roared, and I cowered to the ground. Panicking that he was about to hurt me, I used my contingency plan. "Ghost Sound," I whispered. Police sirens filled the air, but neither cape seemed concerned. Lung just stared more intently at me. Did he realize what I had done? But he had been roaring, so he shouldn't have heard me, right? A tongue of flame jumped off of Lung's finger and singed my right arm. I yelped in pain and started moving my hands to cast Summon Monster II as a distraction, but Lung stepped on my chest. As I pulled in a breath against the tight pressure, he spat in my face, turned, and stalked off. I just lay there for a few minutes, whimpering and freaking out. That had been Lung! Lung! I was amazed and excited that I wasn't dead, but mostly just totally terrified!

After a few minutes, Annie flew up to me. "Taylor! Are you alright! I could feel your pain and fear, what happened to you?"

"Lung."

"Did you try to fight him? Why would you do that?!"

"No, I think he just…wanted…scare me. It worked. But ow, my arm hurts. He burned it."

"I'm so glad you're okay." There was a pause. "Wait, where are the Protectorate? Did they leave?"

"They never showed up!" I said, my voice slightly hysterical. "I thought you were going to call them!"

"I did! I told them exactly where we saw Lung, and that they were going to kill kids! They said they were sending someone to make sure Lung didn't kill anyone!"

"Noone from the Protectorate showed up!" I said, somewhat indignantly. Muttering to myself about how awful the Protectorate was, I pulled myself to my feet and started walking. I couldn't bear to look at the dead body on the ground. I hadn't gotten a block before I started to feel woozy. I settled to the ground and sat there, holding my head. Dang shock! I hadn't even fought! How could I expect to actually be a hero if I couldn't handle just being threatened? Well, and a small burn, and a dead body? As I recovered, I heard a motorcycle roll up. I pulled myself to the side of the sidewalk and tried to sink into the shadows, not in the mood for any sort of confrontation. As the motorcycle came into view, I saw that the passenger was Armsmaster! Leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, and he _looked_ like a hero rather than just a guy in a costume. It would have been great if he had shown up while Lung was still here, but now I just hoped he wouldn't notice the pitiful girl curled up in a ball with her arms around her knees.

Of course, that's exactly what happened. Armsmaster pulled his souped up motorcycle to the curb and dismounted, walking up to me. "Raven? Are you alright?" he asked. I snapped my head up to look at his face. "Raven?"

"What did you call me?"

"Raven. A cape named Raven called the Protectorate about an attack by Lung. I thought you were her." That made some sense. I guess Annie had told the Protectorate she was a cape named Raven. Best to keep anyone from knowing I had a talking bird, after all.

"No, I'm, I'm not Raven," I said.

"Oh. Then who are you? Another independent cape? Or why are you wearing a mask?"

"You can call me Grab Bag," I named myself. It seemed to fit the haphazard nature of my powers. I gestured to Annie. "Raven…I work with her a little bit. We heard Lung saying he was going to kill kids, so I sent Raven to call the Protectorate…well, you, I guess…and I followed."

"Did you see if the kids were safe?"

"I'm…not really sure. He was fighting a bunch of teenage capes before you arrived. I think they might have been the kids. Who were they? And where were you, anyway? I think the only reason I got out of there alive was that Lung didn't consider me a threat!" Although I had had great respect for Armsmaster before today, a note of accusation crept into my voice.

"The capes Lung was fighting were a villain group known as the Undersiders. They recently hit a casino in Lung's territory, so this strike may have been revenge." My heart sunk even further when I heard that. I had nearly died, trying to save villains!

Armsmaster continued, "As for where I was, Lung's power gets stronger the longer he's in a fight. The entire Brockton Bay Protectorate might not be able to stop him if he gets too strong, and there would be a lot of collateral damage. I didn't want to step in unless it was absolutely necessary. Shadow Stalker was watching to make sure you weren't in any danger."

"Not in any danger?" I croaked out, hysteria making my voice slightly shrill. "He stood on my chest and burnt my arm!" I said, brandishing the wound at Armsmaster. "When was she going to step in?"

"Hmm, that is concerning," he allowed. Pressing a button on his helmet, he said, "Shadow Stalker, get down here." Turning back to me, he said, "I'm sure she had a good reason for her actions. After all, he did leave you there after threatening you."

"Yes, but…how could she have known that?" I fell silent with frustration. "Anyway, it would have been nice to have known I had backup."

"I know it is possible that Shadow Stalker could have acted more helpfully in this encounter, but if you were to join the Wards, you would be ensured adequate backup before heading into a combat situation. We keep an organized command structure to allow communication between the Wards, and we would pair you up with another Ward whose powers complemented your own. Speaking of which, what are your powers?"

I considered what he had said. I had previously considered joining the Wards, the under-eighteen subdivision of the Protectorate, but the notion of escaping the stresses of high school by flinging myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and schedules seemed self-defeating. On the other hand, he was right, with the minor powers I had, I really could use the backup. And school _had_ been going better recently; maybe the Wards wouldn't be totally horrible. Although I wasn't sure they'd even want someone with powers as minor as mine. "I named myself after my power, in a way. I have a grab bag of minor abilities, from being able to summon a horse for 8 hours, I think, or an eagle for half a minute, to making ghostly sounds or shooting small missiles that are about as strong as a stab with a dagger or a small burn, I think, 140 feet." I carefully avoided using the words "magic" or "spells," afraid they would make me seem naïve. I knew I was a parahuman, it just made slightly more sense to describe my abilities as spells, and Magic Missile even had "magic" in its name. "There's a few more things, too."

"Interesting," Armsmaster said. "You are right, none of that sounds particularly powerful, except maybe for the missiles, which seem worryingly dangerous. But I'm sure we could find a use for your abilities. How precise are these sounds you can make? Can you imitate someone talking to trick somebody?" Before I could launch into the technical details, a black-cloaked figure jumped down from a nearby roof, her cape billowing behind her.

"_Her_? Why would you want _her_ on the team?" Shadow Stalker scorned. "She's weak! Useless!" I was taken aback. Just as I feared. The Wards would just be more high school drama, and they'd never accept me. As Armsmaster scolded Shadow Stalker, I thought to myself that at least the authority figures in the Protectorate didn't just completely ignore me. Although, maybe he was just making a show of scolding her to try to recruit me. But why would he even want me? My powers were weak! As much as I hated the scorn, Shadow Stalker was right. Maybe he'd get a bonus or some sort of political clout for getting a new recruit? I cut off the embarrassing argument going on in front of me.

"I'm not joining."

"Are you sure? I assure you, Shadow Stalker is by no means typical of the Wards." She tried to protest, but fell silent when he shot her a harsh glare.

"Yes, I'm sure." I left it at that. I really didn't feel like trying to explain my reasons to him right now. Honestly, at this point I was just about ready to quit the whole hero business. I couldn't even beat a couple of street thugs the other day, and the first time I go up against a cape, I'm terrified and nearly die? How useless was I? I mean, what kind of hero can at most beat one more-athletic teenager?

Once again, I was interrupted in my dark musings by the hero in front of me. "Grab Bag, here is my business card. Call the PRT Dispatch if you are in need of assistance. The number listed there is for known independents—it is prioritized over the general line. Only use my personal line if it's an immediate emergency."

I took the card with a mumbled "Thank you." Then, my thoughts finally caught up to the situation—boy, was I exhausted, or just in shock?—and I added, "But I think I'll be taking it easy for a while. I don't plan on fighting any time soon."

To my surprise, Armsmaster then turned to where Annie was perched on my shoulder. "Raven, the offer to join the Wards, or the Protectorate if you are over 18, is open to you as well. I take it you are a changer?"

Annie said nothing until I sighed, "You might as well talk. They obviously already know you can."

Annie spoke, "We're a package deal. I do what…Grab Bag does. And yes, I'm a Changer." Armsmaster gave a slight frown. He looked like he wanted to say something, then decided against it. He pulled another business card out of a slot on his armor and asked if Annie would like one as well, and she took it with her beak and passed it to me to carry it home for her.

Then, he went on his way. I walked home, Annie on my shoulder. She tried to comfort me, but it wasn't helping, and once I told her so, we finished the rest of the walk in silence. I snuck back into the house and went to sleep.

….

The next morning, I could barely force myself to get up for my morning run. The image of Lung bearing down on me kept replaying through my head. Honestly, it was only force of habit that got me going, and once I was already running, I wished I could just magically make it so I hadn't decided to go out. I made the decision right then that I was going to stop trying to be a hero. I obviously didn't have good enough powers to do that. How presumptuous had I been, expecting to be able to do any good with such weak powers? I had been hoping that my powers would let me be something like Dauntless. With his ability to gradually charge up his equipment each day, he was on the path from really weak to potentially Triumvirate-tier eventually. If I was honest with myself, I had dreams of eventually working with my childhood hero, Alexandria, but who was I kidding? My powers had "levelled up" three times already, and so far they just seemed like more of the same, nothing like the dramatic growth I had been hoping for.

I suddenly realized, that after all I had been through with the bullies, I was finally giving up. They weren't even bothering me anymore, and _now_ I had decided to give up? I gave out a harsh chuckle that got me wheezing, and I had to slow down to a walk to catch my breath. Well, Lung was a significantly scarier opponent than three teenage girls, so at least I hadn't let the Trio win. I think if I had been able to fight back at all, it wouldn't have been so bad. I could have handled being roughed up a little by Lung if I could have done anything at all to hurt him, or inconvenience him, or even slow him down in any way, but instead he completely crushed all my attempts to do anything to him. Maybe Shadow Stalker was right. There was no reason the Wards would want me on their team. It was likely that Armsmaster _had_ to offer me the position in the Wards. Stand by the party line, right?

I heard a fluttering of wings and looked up, seeing Annie gliding down towards me. I flung my arms out at her. "Go away, you stupid bird! I don't want to talk!" She cawed at me, but bowed to my wishes and flew up, although as time went on I noticed she was still keeping an eye on me. I wasn't sure what to feel about that. It was nice to know she cared about me, although honestly, what would be the big deal if I got jumped and killed on a run somewhere? My dad hadn't really recovered from Mom, and we talked to each other little enough already because of the bullying. He'd hardly be any worse off if I died, and there was no one else who would care. Well, except Annie, obviously, but what did she know? I'd practically created her, of course she'd want to take care of me. She clearly was a biased judge of my life's worth.

I pulled out of my morbid thoughts as I realized I was coming back to my house. Time for school. I still wasn't really used to the lack of a feeling of dread associated with returning to school. If it wasn't for my fight with Sophia, I would have been expecting something bad; the Trio had let off the pressure before the locker incident, they could be doing something like that again. But somehow the fight with Sophia seemed significant, final somehow, and she had gotten them to back off after admitting I could beat her. Weird, when I had gotten my powers, the only thing keeping me going had been the thought of becoming a hero, but now it was school that was the tolerable part of my life.

That wasn't to say it helped my depression at all. Sure, school wasn't awful anymore, but I was still awkward and had spent too long being ostracized to actually have any friends now. Sure, I sat in the cafeteria now, but I sat silently with the other social rejects, so that wasn't much of an improvement. And Greg still tried to talk to me, but that was just because he was so awkward and desperate he'd talk to any girl who didn't shun him. I almost felt mean for thinking that, but it was true.

….

I continued like this for several weeks, just acting out my life, but not really _living_. Then the sirens went off. I was out for my morning run when it happened, Annie still flying overhead, stubbornly refusing to stop keeping watch over me, even when I had asked her not to. Now, I was glad. The air raid sirens only went off when something terrible was happening to the whole city. If whatever it was threatened me, I knew she would warn me. Now I just needed to get home to Dad. He'd be worried about me, and he might know what was going on. I stopped and started running back home, pacing myself so I wouldn't be exhausted too quickly but otherwise running as fast as I could. It started to rain heavily, which wasn't a good sign, considering one of the possible explanations for the siren. **No.** I refused to even consider it.

I started to run up the steps to the house when my Dad swung the door open. "Taylor! Thank God you're alright! We have to leave now! The TV says we don't even have time to reach the shelter before he gets here, but we have to try."

"Who's coming?" I asked.

"Leviathan." My dad grabbed my arm and started to pull my in the direction of the nearest Endbringer shelter. "I know you just got back from your run, but think you are up for some more running?" I still hadn't completely caught my breadth, but I nodded and took off jogging, my dad keeping pace with me. I would have suggested taking the car instead of running, but I had seen how clogged the streets were as I ran home. There was only one other thing I could do to get us there faster. Since we **really **didn't want to be outside when the Endbringer got here, I made a decision. I gasped,

"Stop," and slowed to a halt. Dad stopped as well, waiting for me to catch my breath. "Dad, I have to tell you something."

"Taylor, I'm sure it can wait until we're safe."

"No, it can't." Time to bite the bullet and spit it out. "I'm a cape. Mount." With a wave of my hands, a horse appeared out of thin air. Dad let out a yell and jumped back in shock. "Get on. It'll get us to the shelter faster," I said, handing him the reigns. Six seconds after the first spell, I cast again, "Mount," and a second horse appeared. I climbed on and, seeing that Dad had successfully climbed on his own, spurred the horses forward.

Once Dad got over his shock, he said, "So, this is why you wanted to take those horse-riding lessons, huh?"

"Yep." A worried look appeared on Dad's face.

"You're not going to go fight him, are you?"

"No, there's nothing I could do," I reassured him. If I had decided I was useless against regular villains, how crazy would I have to be to go up against an Endbringer? I could tell Dad wanted to ask more, but he stayed quiet for the time being and focused on riding his horse.

As we got closer to the shelter, the streets started to get crowded, and a bunch of people gave us odd looks. Deciding we were close enough now, I veered off into a side alley and dismounted. "You too, Dad." Then, I dismissed the Mounts. We walked to the other end of the alley so hopefully the people who had seen us on horseback wouldn't notice us entering the shelter. Then I thought of something. Holding my hand in the air to block the rain, I looked up to find Annie and gave her a wave. She dove down to us. "Annie, maybe if you stay on my shoulder, people will just accept you as a pet."

"No, Taylor, we can't let the people in the shelter know you're a cape. I can still fly, even with this rain, so I can just fly over the tidal waves. I'll be fine. Now get in there." Ignoring Dad's startled exclamations, I tried to protest, but she took off. I yelled after her, but she didn't come back.

"Taylor, your…friend?...is right. I'm sure she'll be fine, but we need to get to safety now!" As he started to pull me forward, I didn't resist. Would I be able to forgive myself for refusing to talk to Annie for weeks if this was the last time I saw her? With an effort, I tried to be optimistic. Annie would be fine, I thought, hoped, willed, as the heavy doors of the shelter closed behind us.

….

Dad and I sat awkwardly through the battle. Surrounded by a bunch of strangers, we couldn't talk about me being a cape, and neither of us was very talkative to begin with, so we didn't talk much. At one point we heard a low, deep rumbling that sounded like an earthquake, but without the accompanying shaking—maybe the buildings downtown had fallen—but nothing else happened. I couldn't feel Annie's emotions most of the time. We had realized that our link only extended out to a mile, so she was _probably_ still alive, but I still worried. The few emotions I felt on occasion were also somewhat strange. Nervousness and fear I expected, but the excitement and small amounts of satisfaction I felt a few times were weird. Still, although I was dying to find out what it meant, I was mostly just glad that I could tell Annie was still alive, even after a sudden burst of pain over our bond that didn't let up in the time before Annie moved away and the link stopped working again. Finally, the police officers running the shelter announced that the battle was over, Scion had driven off the Endbringer, and we were free to go. Foot-deep water started to pour into the shelter after the doors were opened, and we walked out into a scene of devastation. I still couldn't feel Annie over our bond. This was worrying—maybe she had gotten hurt and couldn't fly! I had expected her to meet us as soon as we got out. Noticing me looking around, Dad hugged me close with one arm and said, "I'm sure your friend is okay, Taylor."

"Me too," I said morosely. We continued walking until I couldn't see anyone else in earshot before I continued, "Annie's actually part of my power. Well, sort of. I was able to summon her."

"Like the horses?"

"Yes, but she never goes away, and she's the only one of her I can summon. She's also way smarter than any normal bird." I started to tear up a little and turned, not letting my dad see. "She's my best friend. I hope she's okay." I actually started crying as I realized that this was true. Annie _was_ my best friend, and I hadn't even talked to her for weeks. What kind of a friend was I?

"Taylor," Dad said softly. I looked up and realized that I hadn't hidden my tears as well as I hoped. Dad looked awkward. In an obvious attempt to distract me, he asked, "Is there anything else you can summon?" The distraction worked, as I had to stop crying to respond.

"Well, I can also summon an eagle or badgers or monkeys. Or this invisible servant that can carry stuff. But summoning's not the only thing I can do. I can also shoot tiny rays of frost, or magic missiles, or make it so someone I touch can't run for 24 seconds after I touch them. Just, none of that's really useful in a fight, the missiles are too weak, so I haven't really done anything."

"Well, I'm glad you decided not to go out and get in fights. It's dangerous out there, I don't want you to get hurt." I shifted so I was walking a little further away from him, uncomfortable. Then, I decided to hell with it, I was already telling him things, I might as well tell him everything.

"Actually, I was planning on going out and fighting crime for a while, but then, well, I ran into Lung." My dad paled. "I was fine, he didn't hurt me, but I realized how outclassed I was and decided not to go out again," I said quickly.

"Taylor…" Dad paused. "Well, at least you realized what I mean. And you haven't gone out since?"

"Nope. And I don't plan to." We settled back into silence. With most families, it probably would be uncomfortable, but honestly, this was the longest actual conversation I had had with anybody since talking to Annie. And, there I went, thinking about her again. She would be fine. Really. I hoped.

….

A few minutes later, we got to our house. Or rather, we got to where our house used to be. Now, it was destroyed.

My home was gone, but at least I still had my dad. I turned to him. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, kiddo, I think we should find out if Kurt or Lacey are all right. They'll take us in, I'm sure of it." He picked his way through the rubble to try the phone, but the phone lines were down. "Well, I guess we'll have to walk." We turned to leave the house and saw three men walking towards us. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but they struck me as incredibly shady—maybe equal parts ratty clothes, threatening posture, and sneers on their faces. Oh, and the fact that the two in front were holding a rusty pipe and a piece of a two-by-four, and the one in the back held a gun.

"We follow them all the way here, and the fuckers aren't even rich!" The guy with the pipe complained. "Hell, you aren't even middle class. You're poorer than shit now."

"Hey, get back. What do you think you are doing?" Dad demanded. He stepped forward angrily, but stopped when the one with the gun twitched it in his direction.

"Where did you get those horses anyway? Steal them from somewhere?" the guy with the wood asked.

"It doesn't matter. I didn't follow these bitches back to their house to get nothing, so I say we have a little fun with them," pipe-thug said, smacking his pipe against his hand threateningly and continuing to advance.

"Taylor, get behind me." I stepped back, but almost tripped on the broken front mantelpiece. I had to do something, but all of my combat spells were really obvious. Except, maybe I had actually found a use for it after all.

"Unseen Servant," I whispered. I could sense the ball of force come into being, and I willed it to go after the guy with the gun first. The guy with the pipe went after my dad. Dad tried to punch him, but, weaponless, he had a lot less reach than the other guy, and he got hit in the chest and let out a grunt. There had to be something else I could do. I started scrambling over the rubble, trying to find somewhere I could be hidden. I heard the second guy coming after me.

"Yeah, I think we got something out of this after all. You're just my type," he said, and grabbed my leg. Trying not to think about the implications, I turned and grabbed his hand, saying,

"Touch of Fatigue." Then, I kicked him in the arm with my other leg, and he let go. Scrambling away, I got to my feet and started to run, and he ran after me. Damn. I knew from my experiments with Sophia in school that it wasn't 100% reliable, but I could have used the chance to get away. Why did it have to fail _now? _Then, I heard the guy with the gun curse.

"Fuck, there's a cape nearby. Fucker just grabbed my gun!" They guy chasing me turned to look. Now to get rid of them.

"Ghost Sound," I whispered. Through practice, I had realized that my control wasn't precise enough to actually talk using this spell, but I could set a criterion for a general class of statements, and my power would figure out what to say. I had gotten really lucky with my "defend the person getting bullied" use of the power back when I was only first level. Now I commanded it to produce the sounds of capes arresting someone.

"Surrender, evildoers!" one dramatic voice declared.

"Get away from the civilians!"

"Drop your weapons and put your hands behind your head."

And so on. At level 4, the spell made 16 voices, so it was something of a jumbled mess, but the attackers got the idea and ran off. A feeling of triumph filled me, one I hadn't realized just how much I had missed. I had levelled up again!

**A/N: I've read sooooo maaanny Lung fights that I decided to try something new. **_**A Cloudy Path**_** was close, but I don't think I've ever seen Taylor just get curbstomped by Lung. (Since the time I first wrote this, Ack wrote **_**Confrontation**_**, which has a Taylor who gets curbstomped even harder by Lung.) Her retirement afterwards came naturally from that, and it also let me think about how the city would turn out without Taylor meddling. Basically, I decided that the balance of power would probably hold and keep things from changing enough that a civilian would notice. Even without the mayhem in Brockton Bay, I still had Leviathan attack there because his target, Noelle, was still in the city, and it was still a soft spot built over an aquifer.**

**For the Rime Spell, I decided that "entanglement lasts for a number of rounds equal to the level" should count as half a round for a 0-level spell, just so Taylor could actually do something with it.**

**As some people have noticed, I have been having Taylor level up faster than normal for a Sorcerer. This has just been because it fit the story better not to have her grind her way up through low-level combat encounters, but I've finally reached a part of the story where I actually want to settle in and have a lot happen, so it will from now on take a much more normal amount of XP for her to level up.**


	5. Fifth Level, Part 1

**A/N: Taylor got two extra cantrips this level from a really lucky random roll for feat selection, and the Invisibility is the bonus spell for being in the Arcane Bloodline.**

Almost giddy with excitement, I pulled the names of my new spells to the front of my mind. Ooh, Enlarge Person, Gust of Wind, Message, Mage Hand, and Invisibility! That was what I was missing out on! Wow, there's that power-up I was waiting for! I was such an idiot! Then I was brought back to reality by the sound of my dad groaning. Rubble shifted as he pulled himself to his feet. "Taylor, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Dad."

"Where are the heroes?"

"There are no heroes," I said, a little proudly.

"What? But I heard…ohhhh. Was that you?"

"Yep."

"You didn't say you had telekinesis or ventriloquism."

"More like a general sound-making ability than ventriloquism. I can't control it enough to talk through it." I looked at the rip in his shirt, which he was holding to a small cut on his chest, and the bruises on his arms and face. "No healing powers, though. Sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's just a little cut," he said.

"I can fix your shirt though. Mending." The rip in his shirt closed up, but the spell didn't get rid of the blood. Oh, well. "Oh, guess it doesn't clean clothes. Never tried that before. Sorry." I looked up from the shirt and saw a strange look on Dad's face. I backed away a little.

"Taylor, I'm so proud of you." What. "You just saved us from those thugs. That's supposed to be my job, I'm the dad, but you did it. Good job." I just stood there, shocked. I had never expected to hear that. All this time, I'd been convinced I was useless, but he was right. I _had_ saved us, and my new powers actually sounded better for fighting than the rest of what I had. Maybe I was just stuck in a slump, not useless. Maybe I _could_ be a hero.

I couldn't help it. I started crying, for real this time, and Dad enveloped me in a hug.

…..

It turned out that Dad's friends Kurt and Lacey had lost their home as well. The four of us decided to move to one of the shelters on the outskirts of town. As we were walking in that direction, I felt relief and happiness over the bond with Annie, and I realized she wasn't in pain anymore. Then her emotions transitioned to worry. I was confused. What could have stopped the pain? Did she find a Tylenol lying around somewhere? Then I realized the worry was probably for me. And she had no idea where to find me. Shit.

"Dad, I need to go back home. I think my friend is coming to look for me, and she has no idea where I am now." Dad's face scrunched up in a frown.

"Taylor, you can't have any idea where she is. We don't have time to go home." I wanted to explain the link, but with Kurt and Lacey there, I couldn't. Argh!

"Dad, I _know_ she's looking for me," I said, sounding slightly more confident then I felt. In fact, all I really knew was that she was worried, but it was a likely guess. "Trust me."

I saw Dad's eyes dart to Kurt and Lacey. Hopefully he was figuring out what I wasn't saying. Then, he sighed. "Okay, Taylor. We can go home and see if your friend is there, but we're going to be at the camps by sundown." He turned to Kurt and Lacey. "Meet you at the camps?"

They shared a look. "No, Danny, we just found you, we're not getting separated that easily. I don't know why Taylor is so insistent on going to your house, but if you're going, we'll come with," Kurt said. Dang. I appreciated the thought, but this would just make things way more awkward. Oh well, nothing I could do about it.

We got to the ruins of the house and, sure enough, there was a raven sitting on the ruins. "Annie?" I asked. I felt a pulse of joy through the bond, and the raven flew straight at me, flying up at the last second. That must have been her way of telling me it was her.

"Damn bird nearly gave me a heart attack," Kurt muttered. Lacey saw I was crying, and pulled me in for a hug.

"I'm sorry your friend's not here, Taylor. We could wait here for a while if we need to," she offered. She didn't realize I was crying with relief. I looked up at Dad, hoping he would understand what I meant.

"We don't need to wait. She'll get in touch with me another way."

…..

That night, my dad distracted Kurt and Lacey at my request, chatting with them by a campfire, while I snuck out of the refugee camp to see Annie. I didn't know where she was, but I could still feel her over the link, so I knew she was nearby. I was hoping she was still keeping an eye on me, as she had been before darkness fell and I couldn't see her anymore. I wasn't sure if she could see me in the dark, so I tried to focus on my worry so she would sense it and hopefully look for me. I wasn't disappointed. I was sitting at the base of a tree about 20 feet off the road when Annie flew in and landed in front of me. "Taylor, are you okay?"

"Yes, Annie, I'm fine. I was about to ask the same of you."

"Never been better. Panacea does great work."

"WHAT?" I nearly shouted.

Annie shifted her head awkwardly. "Well, uh, maybe I should start at the beginning."

…..

**Annie**

"So, uh, after the shelter doors closed, I just perched on top of a building for a while, but I started to get bored, so I called the PRT and asked if they thought there was anything I could do to help."

"What? What did you think you could do against Leviathan?" Taylor asked, a look on her face that I think meant she didn't believe me.

"I don't know, maybe look for people who hadn't evacuated or something?" I said, a bit defensively. "At first the PRT lady said she didn't think so, but then she changed her mind and asked me to try to keep an eye on Lung. Apparently everyone who showed up to fight Leviathan got a wristband to talk to each other. It also said where they were, but Lung had transformed enough that the wristband had broken, so they told me the last place they saw him. I flew over there, but by the time I got there, all I saw were the dead, the injured, and a couple of people trying to help the injured. I landed by Kid Win to see if he was alright, and he was bleeding a lot, and I think his legs were broken or something, but he said he'd be fine, and he told me they were having trouble keeping track of Leviathan and told me where he had been seen last and asked if I could look for him."

Taylor interrupted me, "Wait, you let Kid Win know you could talk?"

I hopped back and forth awkwardly. "Well, theWardsandProtectoratekindaalreadyknowbecauseI'vebeenworkingforthemforweeks." I said in a rush.

"I must not have heard right. It sounded like you said you've been working with the Wards and Protectorate for weeks."

"Well, yeah, that's what I said. Since you stopped talking to me, actually."

"I think you should start _more_ at the beginning."

"Well, I had nothing to do all day," I started, leaving out that it was her fault for not talking to me. I didn't want her to get offended and stop talking to me again. "So I called the PRT again and asked if there was anything I could do. They said I could do what I did the night you went out, fly around and look for trouble so they'd find out about it faster. I told them I was over 18, so they wanted me to join the Protectorate, but I refused, so they said I could just be an 'independent consultant'. So basically I patrolled for a while. Helped them find and stop a bunch of muggings and drug dealers and stuff. I even had to stall the bad guys a few times while the good guys showed up. It's funny how much those big bad gangsters freak out when a bird flies in their face or poops on their face."

Taylor laughed a little. Good. It was nice to see her smile. "So yeah, that's pretty much it, until Leviathan. Anyway, I flew towards where they had seen him last and scouted around a bit until I got lucky and saw him going into a parking garage. I called Kid Win—oh, right, Kid Win made me a phone I could control with voice commands. It's hidden in the feathers on the back of my neck." I leaned forward so Taylor could feel in my feathers and see it for herself. "So, I called Kid Win and told him, and he told me he'd relayed the information to his armband. Then I saw Lung charging in after him, and I told Kid Win, but none of the heroes went in after them. I think they were afraid to go underground with those two. Next thing I knew, there was a huge rumbling and a giant part of the city started to sink and get filled with water. It's a huge lake now, covering a whole bunch of downtown. I started to fly over to see if Leviathan was there, but then the ground beneath me erupted and _two_ of Lung burst out. I couldn't believe my eyes, but there they were. Both had grown enough from fighting that they were more dragon than man, although one was more like a dragon than the other. The smaller one was missing some scales, and his skin looked burnt underneath them. The bigger Lung shouted something I couldn't understand at the capes who had gathered outside of the parking garage and waved at the smaller Lung, but nobody could figure out what he meant, so they just let them fight.

Then _another_ monster burst from the ground, coming out of the hole the Lungs had made. I think there was a secret Endbringer shelter or villain base down there or something. The new monster wasn't a dragon. It looked like a woman from the stomach up, but her bottom half was just this fleshy, disgusting mess with multiple massive inhuman heads sticking out, and giant tentacles, and too many legs, and ugghhh. So gross. Anyway, she moved towards all the capes, who prepared weapons and force fields in case she was hostile, but she just wanted to know which way Leviathan had gone. A cape I didn't recognize, must have been from out of town, said she didn't know, and the monster girl almost looked like she was going to attack them. She started ranting something about him killing 'Krouse'.

I was worried she was going to do something rash, so I flew down closer to her and told her which direction I had seen the sinkhole in. She charged off through the buildings to look for him. Chevalier was with the group of capes below me. He said that since he was too slow to catch up to Leviathan and tough enough he could fight Lung if necessary, he'd keep an eye on the two Lungs while everyone else there went after Leviathan. I turned and left, but after the battle I found out that the bigger Lung eventually killed the smaller Lung. Apparently the monster girl was a cape who makes evil clones, and the smaller one was an evil clone of Lung—yeah, I know, I'm not sure how there can be an evil clone of a villain. Anyway, I saw the monster girl again, but I couldn't find Leviathan. All I saw was more and more of the city collapsing into the giant sinkhole. I think two-thirds of downtown is underwater now. Leviathan got the sinkhole to connect to the ocean before Scion showed up and drove him off. I heard he also turned the monster-girl into a real girl again, apparently her power was turning her into a monster and he fixed it, and then she turned herself in to the Protectorate. I heard she killed a whole bunch of people in New York when she was still a monster and felt bad. Anyway, while Leviathan was running away, he smashed through a building when I was on the other side and I didn't see him coming. Some of his water got me, and broke my wing, and I crashed to the ground. Luckily, I was able to call the Protectorate for help, so they eventually got me to Panacea, who was able to heal me. She figured out I'm not actually a cape, but she promised not to tell anybody. Anyway, that's it."

…..

**Taylor**

I was quiet for a moment, just digesting the amazing story. I was having so many different responses to the story at once that I didn't know what to say. I was proud of Annie, glad that she was okay, irrationally angry that she had gone behind my back to become a hero, and, above all, embarrassed and mad at myself for spending so long moping when I could have been helping the heroes. Annie must have recognized my awkwardness, so she gave me an out by commenting, "So, I guess you levelled up again? I suddenly know a new language. I wonder what language this is? I don't think I've heard it before. Does it sound familiar to you? Oh, right, English. Did that sound familiar to you?"

I was confused until I realized that Annie had switched to another language in the middle of her statement, and that I had somehow understood it perfectly. "Um, huh. I understood you just fine. And no, I don't recognize the language. I guess that will be something to look up once we get Internet access again."

"How did you level up? Who'd you beat up?"

"Some thugs tried to mug Dad and me when we were checking out the house. Or what's left of it, anyway, it got destroyed in the attack. I drove them off. Oh, and Dad knows about my power now."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Uh, good, I think," I replied. "He seemed fine with it. Although I'm not sure what he's going to think when I tell him I've decided I'm going to use my powers and be a hero."

"Oh, you are? Yay!"

"I hadn't actually decided until I said it just now, but yeah. You've been out doing good all this time. I should be able to help. Especially in the aftermath of the Endbringer attack. I've got to do _something_."

"I'm proud of you, Taylor. And don't worry, I'll be with you all the way," my loyal familiar announced, as I thought how silly it was that _she_ was proud of _me_ when she was the one who had just helped in an Endbringer attack. "What exactly are you going to do? Go out patrolling again?" Annie asked.

"I'm not really sure. I was thinking I can probably help with disaster relief for a few days. Unseen Servant can lift 20 lbs or drag 100, so if I cast 6 of them, they could cumulatively lift 120 lbs or drag 600 lbs. But that's probably not enough to be very useful when it comes to clearing out rubble, although I guess it would be good for the little pieces, for carrying people's belongings, or for fixing things. Mending's only good for stuff less than 1 lb, although I bet I could still find a use for that. I don't think summoned monsters can be used for anything other than fighting. I bet it would be useful to give people temporary horses, though. Except I bet there aren't that many people who know how to ride one. Other than those, I'll just have to try out my new spells." I still had three level 1 spells left, so I started by casting "Enlarge Person" on myself. Suddenly I was bigger, maybe twice my normal size, and proportionally stronger, although I couldn't walk any faster than normal, strangely enough. I thought my longer legs should have made me faster, but I guess I just had to move more slowly to compensate for the extra weight or something. I dispelled Enlarge Person and tested the other spells. My new 0-level spells included Message, which let me have a whispered conversation with Annie when she was 150 feet away, and Mage Hand, which was 5-lb telekinesis that I could use to move something a distance of up to 15 feet, with the targeted object up to 35 feet away. My new second-level spells were the really impressive ones. Gust of Wind made a powerful gust of wind in a line for 60 feet in front of me, and Invisibility turned me or an object invisible for 5 minutes. As with Resistance, I could include Annie when I cast Invisibility on myself, as long as she was nearby when I did it.

Power testing done, I said goodbye to Annie and headed back to the camp. I could start heroing tomorrow. I just had to decide what exactly to do. Enlarge Person would probably be useful for disaster cleanup work, but I wasn't sure how to go about using it. I didn't have a costume—I only had a few changes of clothes right now anyways—and I definitely wasn't going to reveal my identity. For a minute I got really discouraged and almost gave up again, but then I remembered I was being silly. For the first time in months, Dad actually knew what was going on in my life and could probably help. As weird as it felt, I'd just go ask him.

I found where Dad was talking to Kurt. "Hey, Dad. Do you think we could go somewhere private to talk?"

I thought I saw a small frown before he said, "Sure," said goodnight to Kurt, and started walking back out of the camp with me. Once we were out of earshot of the camp, Dad awkwardly asked, "So, uh, did you find your friend?"

"Yep." I smiled. "She's doing great. In fact, Panacea healed her after she helped in the Endbringer fight."

Dad looked shocked. "What?! But I thought you said she was just a really smart bird?"

I smiled. "I did. She said she acted as a scout. I think you should actually get to meet her." We both fell silent after that until we came back to the area I had met Annie in earlier that night. Annie saw us and flew in. "Dad, this is Annie. Annie, say hi," I said, feeling extremely awkward at introducing Dad to a bird, who also happened to be my best friend since Emma turned on me.

"Hi, uh…what do I call you?"

"Mr. Hebert will do, I guess, like Taylor's other friends." I bit down the urge to comment that I didn't _have_ any other friends right now. It wouldn't help.

"Hi, then, Mr. Hebert. It's nice to finally talk to you."

"The same to you. Thank you for being such a good friend to Taylor. I can tell you mean a lot to her." I turned away to hide my slight blush. Really, Dad? You say that when I haven't even talked to her at all until just recently?

"Of course. I've been keeping an eye on her while she runs to make sure she stays safe."

"So…I hear you helped in the Endbringer fight? That was really brave of you."

"Well, I was stuck out here with nothing to do, I figured I might as well help out when I could probably just fly away from danger." They descended into an awkward silence. Eventually, I spoke up.

"Now that you've met each other, I have something to tell you, Dad." I paused, took a breath, and collected myself. "I want to be a hero."

"No. Taylor, you said it yourself, it's not safe."

"Dad, I know I'm good enough to help. I have powers, I'm sure I can beat a few normal gangsters. Even if they outnumber me, I can summon monkeys or eagles to help. And I have better sp...powers now, I can turn invisible so they won't even see me, and I can blast them with wind. And the more fights I win, the more powers I get. Think of all the good I could do, of how strong I could get if I keep doing this."

"Taylor, I'm really not sure this is a good idea. What if you run into a cape?"

Then I used my trump card. "I can always just turn invisible and run away. And besides, I'm not planning on looking for fights. I just want to help with the repair effort at first."

Dad looked thoughtful. "Well, maybe. But what if one of the gangs sees you and tries to recruit you because you're a cape? And you can't get away in time? And what would you use for a costume anyway?"

"Well, I figured I could just pick a set of clothes for now and never wear it when I'm not being a superhero. If I have my hood up and use a scarf to cover my face, nobody should recognize me."

Annie spoke up, to both of our slight surprise. It was easy to forget we weren't the only ones there when the third person was a bird. "If Taylor really gets in trouble, I'll call the PRT for backup. I've been scouting for them for weeks now, I have a direct line to the Wards console."

Dad mulled it over for a minute. "So I guess I can't convince you not to do this?" he said, looking dejected. My heart fell at the look on his face.

"Dad, _please_, I need this," I said. "You know how I've been lately. Even after the bullying stopped, I haven't had anything to do with my life. Now I do. I can make a difference. I can help! I _need_ to be a superhero. Please. I promise I'll be careful."

Dad visibly struggled a bit before pulling me into a hug. "Okay, Taylor. You can be a superhero. But I want you to join the Wards. You shouldn't have to call them for backup and hope they can show up on time. I want them backing you up all the time. And be careful." As I hugged Dad back, I realized I was surprisingly okay with the idea of joining the Wards. After weeks of boring high school, I wasn't really afraid of social interactions anymore. If they were anything like the people at school, they'd just ignore me unless it was part of the job, which I guess is analogous to projects in class. Although Shadow Stalker seemed like a bitch, but I could prove her wrong. I would be a good hero, no matter what she said.

"That's a great idea!" Annie chipped in. "I've been working with them long enough that I'm basically friends with Kid Win, and the other Wards are all pretty cool too. Well, Shadow Stalker seems to hate me for some reason, but she's the exception. And they'll help you get a costume too. Although, Aegis, Gallant, and Clockblocker died in the Endbringer fight." I felt a surprising amount of sadness over our bond.

I crouched down. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you knew them that well."

"I didn't, but…it's always sad when someone you've worked with dies."

Dad ended our hug and nodded. "I know how that feels. I'm worried for the other Dockworkers we haven't gotten in touch with yet. Obviously there's no good way to do it with the cell service down, and it hasn't been long since the attack, but Kurt, Lacey, and I were going to try to get in contact with the others tomorrow. I hope they're okay."

"Oh, I'll help," I offered. "Joining the Wards can wait a day or two. But it's definitely going to happen, okay Dad?"

"I've got it, Kiddo. You're going to be a Ward, and I'll back you up all the way, I promise. But first let's deal with this disaster. Our home just got destroyed today. We should settle down first before you go running off to be a hero."

"You're right, Dad. Thanks for supporting me on this. It means a lot."

"I'll always support you, don't worry." It really did mean a lot to me. I always knew Dad wanted to be there for me, but he would have made the bullying situation worse if he had tried to step in. But now, this situation, he could definitely help and support me. I went to sleep that night far happier than I had any right to be on the night of an Endbringer attack.

**Author's Note:**

**I went through and updated all four previous chapters. Mostly it was minor changes, but I also rather significantly modified the fight with Sophia to bring it closer to actual D&amp;D. Of course, "closer to" doesn't mean it's actually accurate, but whatever.**

**The next chapter will probably be out on November 1.**


End file.
